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The article tries to track down the factors which provide the political system of Cuba with the stability it still shows almost one decade after the Berlin Wall case. At the beginning, the central exogenous and endogenous structure elements of tropical socialism are introduced. Afterwards, the previous reform course is documented. Its analysis shows that the Cuban society is in a process of structural heterogeneity, which will erode its stability in the long run. With recourse on known theories of the political sociology of social inequality, the specific stability of the Cuban socialism is finally identified. The article closes with an outline of reform requests, which might give Cuba a last historic chance for a civil and social transformation of its society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]